Walker's Trophy A Fake -- Usher Jabs At Abc

July 15, 1985|By Brian Schmitz and By Brian Schmitz of The Sentinel Staff

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Herschel Walker was presented his USFL Most Valuable Player trophy during halftime ceremonies Sunday at the championship game. But there was one catch: It wasn't the real trophy.

Walker, presented the trophy at a banquet Friday night, immediately shipped it to his mother's home in Georgia on Saturday.

USFL officials tried to get the trophy shipped back in time for the halftime presentation, but no luck. They gave Walker a ''dummy'' trophy during the halftime ceremony. Nobody knew the difference, of course.

''They found a trophy lying around somewhere,'' said one league official, who, for obvious reasons, begged anonymity.

The USFL just can't get a break. Forty minutes before the kickoff of the championship game, Giants Stadium was pelted by a rainstorm. The immediate fear among league officials was how the rain would affect attendance. Apparently, it didn't hurt. The announced crowd was 49,263. Officials had expected 35,000 to 40,000. . . . Did You Know Dept.: The Stars are not the only pro football team to make it to a title game three consecutive years. In the past 20 years, the Green Bay Packers (1965-66-67) and the Miami Dolphins (1982-83-84) have done it in the NFL. The Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL played in six consecutive Grey Cups (1977-82).

ABC commentator Keith Jackson on his three-year bird's-eye view of the USFL: ''I was happy to see an awful lot of young men have the opportunity to play pro football. Also, it kept me out of the Soviet Union, Romania, Bulgaria and all those other funny places we go with amateur boxing in the spring. It was an experiment, a gamble to try to change the habits of the public. But Mother's Day, Easter Sunday, dandelions and crab grass are awfully tough to compete against.'' . . . The USFL had wide-world exposure by ABC. The game was telecast to Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Mexico, Spain and Holland. And you thought nobody cared. . . . USFL Commissioner Harry Usher on ABC televising the star-studded New Jersey Generals more than any other team: ''ABC showed New Jersey nine times. Christopher Columbus decided at ABC that America stopped at the Appalachians.''